Admiral says US can intercept North Korean missile

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., left, talks with committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2014, prior to the start of the committee's hearing focusing on the Korean peninsula as it reviews defense authorization requests for fiscal year 2014.

U.S. defenses could intercept a ballistic missile launched by North Korea, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday as the relationship between the West and the communist government hit its lowest point since the end of the Korean War.

WASHINGTON — U.S. defenses could intercept a ballistic missile launched by North Korea, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday, as the relationship between the West and the communist government hit its lowest ebb since the end of the Korean War.

Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Kim Jong Un, the country's young and still relatively untested new leader, has used the past year to consolidate his power.

The admiral said Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles represents a clear threat to the United States and its allies in the region.

During an exchange with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Locklear said the U.S. military has the capability to thwart a North Korean strike, but he said a decision on whether a missile should be intercepted should be based on where it is aimed and expected to land.

"I believe we have the ability to defend the homeland, Guam, Hawaii and defend our allies," said Locklear, who added that it wouldn't take long to determine where a missile would strike.

Locklear concurred with McCain's assessment that the tension between North Korea and the West was the worst since the end of the Korean War in the early 1950s. But the admiral insisted that the U.S. military and its allies would be ready if North Korea tried to strike.

"We're ready," Locklear said.

He said North Korea is keeping a large percentage of its combat forces along the demilitarized zone with South Korea, a position that allows the North to threaten U.S. and South Korean civilian and military personnel.

Locklear told the panel, "The continued advancement of the North's nuclear and missile programs, its conventional force posture and its willingness to resort to asymmetric actions as a tool of coercive diplomacy creates an environment marked by the potential for miscalculation. ..."

Increasingly bellicose rhetoric has come from Pyongyang and its leader, with North Korea urging foreign companies and tourists to leave South Korea and warning that the countries are on the verge of a nuclear war.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney brushed off the North's declaration that nuclear war was imminent as "more unhelpful rhetoric" and part of a pattern of combative statements and behavior that Pyongyang's leadership has demonstrated for years. He said the U.S. was working with Seoul and Tokyo on the issue.

"It is unhelpful, it is concerning, it is provocative," Carney said.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., told Locklear that the North Korean government's threats "appear to exceed its capabilities, and its use of what capabilities it has against the U.S. or our allies seems highly unlikely and would be completely contrary to the regime's primary goal of survival."

"Nonetheless, its words and actions are not without consequences," Levin said.

The Democrat questioned the Obama administration's decision to delay a long-scheduled operational test of an intercontinental ballistic missile amid the North Korea rhetoric.

Locklear said he agreed with the decision to delay the test.

"We have demonstrated to the people of the region, demonstrated to the leadership of North Korea, our ability and willingness to defend our nation, our people, our allies and our forward deployed forces," Locklear said, citing other steps the U.S. military has taken in recent weeks.

The U.S. has moved two of the Navy's missile-defense ships closer to the Korean peninsula, and a land-based system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam. The U.S. also called attention to the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercise that included a practice run over South Korea by B-2 stealth bombers.